Tag Archives: Comanche

Onward, Civilization

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Presbyterian Missionary Kate McBeth and Nez Perce Students, late 19th Century, courtesy Idaho Historical Society

Besides encouraging native peoples to take up farming, white settlers believed that introducing Christianity would help “civilize” Indians (see last post). Federal policy encouraged missionaries to enter Indian territories to spread both the gospel and white culture. By the 1820s, missionaries were active as far west as Oklahoma, and by the 1850s, had established churches, schools, and mission stations among the Cherokee, Comanche, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and many other native peoples. The government  did not always observe a strict separation of church and state, since they considered Christian missionaries effective ambassadors of white culture, and actively encouraged their involvement in reservation life. In 1869, federal officials instituted the Peace Policy, a church-led assimilation program based out of reservations. These and similar efforts fell in line with the prevailing notion that America held a unique position in the world because of its Christian, democratic roots, and needed to spread its ideals across the continent.

For the most part, missionaries were undoubtedly convinced that their work would better both the physical and spiritual lives of Indians, and Native Americans did not always reject Christianity out of hand. Various Native American belief systems held commonalities with Christianity, and Native Americans tended to be spiritually inclusive. As a result, they could accept appealing parts of Christianity without rejecting their own traditional belief systems. In unfortunate contrast, Christian missionaries wanted Native Americans to abandon their heritage and culture completely. This adversarial stance guaranteed that Native Americans would suffer almost continually for practicing their own religion.

Reverend Arthur on Horseback With His Three Children, courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Chief Black Horse Shaking Hands With Missionary, Promising Friendship, between 1880 and 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

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Gender Roles

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Female-Owned Tipi

Europeans found much to puzzle them when they first met Native American populations; the last two posts have discussed their surprise that Native Americans did not own property or animals. Europeans also misinterpreted Native American gender roles. Native American women were busy people. Women didn’t just tend a small kitchen garden, they farmed–planting, hoeing, and harvesting the village crops of corn, squash, and beans. On the Plains, Indian women also set up and dismantled tipis, collected firewood, preserved meat, took care of children, cooked, fetched water, and made clothing. It seemed like an enormous workload compared to the hunting men did (plus clearing fields for planting, completing religious and spiritual ceremonies, and war-making, among other tasks). Europeans normally observed men’s hunting role alone, and for this reason, frequently criticized Indian men as lazy, and Indian women as down-trodden and over-worked.

What Europeans seldom realized was that Indian women were more powerful than they appeared to be on the surface. Unlike European women who had few rights, Indian women often owned whatever possessions the family had. Women had the right to demand a divorce, and in a 180-degree turn from the European system, it was the male who was left without possessions. Rather than being patronized as delicate creatures with limited stamina and intellectual powers and prone to error and emotional bondage as European women were, Indian women were respected for their value to their villages. They were much more involved in village decision-making than their European counterparts, and often made life-and-death decisions concerning prisoners of war and adoption. Until Europeans forced cultural changes that transformed Indian society into the European mold, Indian women had an unusual degree of power.

Two Comanche Girls

Comanche Camp

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